How are California lawmakers spending their month-long summer break from legislative action? A contingent of state senators has jetted off to Japan to discuss trade and efforts to combat climate change with that country's leaders. Senate leader Kevin de Léon (D-Los Angeles), along with seven other Democratic senators, met Monday with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and toured the National Diet of Japan, the country's legislative body.

Among the items on the agenda, according to De Léon's office, were trans-Pacific trade and fighting climate change. In an echo of Gov. Jerry Brown's climate-focused trip to China in June, lawmakers sought to differentiate their efforts to confront global warming from the Trump administration, which pulled out of the Paris climate accord this spring.